Book Description
Nikolai Gogol’s short story is a sublime work of tragi–comedy. In it, he brilliantly ridicules the Ukrainian passion for litigation and reveals life as something really rather absurd. Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are the greatest of friends—until the day they begin a foolish quarrel that culminates in that very worst of insults: “And you, Ivan Ivanovich, are a goose.” From that moment on, not another word is spoken between them as they choose instead to fight out their differences in the courts. But it seems theirs is a lawsuit that is set to run for years and years… With a Foreword by Patrick McCabe.
From the Publisher
Hesperus Press, as suggested by their Latin motto, Et remotissima prope, is dedicated to bringing near what is far—far both in space and time. Works by illustrious authors, often unjustly neglected or simply little known in the English–speaking world, are made accessible through a completely fresh editorial approach or new translations. Through these short classic works, which feature forewords by leading contemporary authors, the modern reader will be introduced to the greatest writers of Europe and America. An elegantly designed series of exceptional books.
From the Author
'a fantastic, self-parodic, mock-heroic folk-tale on drugs in outer space'- From the Foreword by Patrick McCabe
From the Inside Flap
‘Very original and very funny' – Alexander Pushkin
About the Author
Dramatist and writer Nikolai Gogol is a key figure in early nineteenth-century Russian literature
The Squabble FROM THE PUBLISHER
Hesperus Press, as suggested by their Latin motto, Et remotissima prope, is dedicated to bringing near what is far—far both in space and time. Works by illustrious authors, often unjustly neglected or simply little known in the English–speaking world, are made accessible through a completely fresh editorial approach or new translations. Through these short classic works, which feature forewords by leading contemporary authors, the modern reader will be introduced to the greatest writers of Europe and America. An elegantly designed series of exceptional books.
SYNOPSIS
Nikolai Gogol’s short story is a sublime work of tragi–comedy. In it, he brilliantly ridicules the Ukrainian passion for litigation and reveals life as something really rather absurd.
Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are the greatest of friends—until the day they begin a foolish quarrel that culminates in that very worst of insults: “And you, Ivan Ivanovich, are a goose.” From that moment on, not another word is spoken between them as they choose instead to fight out their differences in the courts. But it seems theirs is a lawsuit that is set to run for years and years… With a Foreword by Patrick McCabe.
FROM THE CRITICS
Kirkus Reviews
The great gifts for farcical detail and satiric characterization that distinguish such later masterpieces as Dead Souls and "The Government Inspector" are amply displayed in these three earlier stories, set in Gogolﾽs native Ukraine (a.k.a. "Little Russia"). "The Carriage" (1836), about a disgraced cavalry officerﾽs failed attempt to impress his social and military superiors, is a crisp narrative suffused with Chekhovian pathos—as is the more ambitious "Olde Worlde Landowners" (1835), which is simultaneously lament and lampoon, portraying the ingenuous overindulgence of a subsequently vanished leisured class. The hilarious 1834 title story, a naﾽve narratorﾽs effusive account of a trivial neighborsﾽ feud that produces years of litigation and tragicomically wasted lives, is a classic demonstration of the mastery of both hyperbole and understatement that made Gogol (1809-52) a unique and irreplaceable writer.
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